Category: Gaming

Written by Alberto Statti

Everyone should have played or at least heard of Star Wars: Battlefront by now. Many will have decided whether or not they enjoy the game and the people that enjoy it will still be playing. Personally, I was so unlucky (“Hey theres Alberto Statti, get him!”) in the game that I stopped playing pretty quickly. It might have been the fact that everyone got some amazing kills from insane distances or kicking my ass from behind before I can turn round. Maybe it was getting stuck under vehicles or only lasting a couple of minutes in a vehicle at most. Check my video for some good and bad times in Battlefront:

Okay so let me explain each clip if you are on mobile and are conserving data.

Clip 1

The first clip is of me with low health in an AT-ST, naturally I get his with a missile so I have to abandon ship. As I abandon ship I turn to my left and run into the left of the AT-ST I jumped out of, so I move a bit more to the left to go round it and it falls on me and my camera bugs out and I cant move until it de-spawns.

Clip 2

Clip 2 is a lot better looking. I initially pick up a powerup and its a thermal imploder (yes!). I throw it at the first person I see in a tunnel and get a nice kill with it. I process to move into said cave after finishing off another unlucky soul. A couple of clips into what I thought was a person but turns out to be a shiny rock and im in the cave in another fight then another then another. As if god was smiling down upon me, I got 3 kills without taking a hit. Called it a day after that before it got ruined.

Clip 3

Clip 3 had me shooting randomly at enemies littered about. I make a slight retreat behind a rock and as you would have guessed it, get stuck on that damn rock. I managed to jump over it and throw a grenade. The grenade actually killed someone (pure luck) just the AT-AT looks at me and blows me into oblivion.

Clip 4

Clip 4 consists of me being an idiot again. I was keeping it safe staying back waiting for someone to come to me as I was defending. But nope, not good enough for me, I had to run in. First thing I see is an AT-ST so I hightail it out of there. I see someone between 2 shipping crates but they aren’t looking and I assume they will go in a different direction to me. Nope they manage to get right up to, I crap my pants, miss my shots and get killed.

Alberto Statti

Final Clip

The finally clip is me staying back defending again but this time I learned my lesson and dont run in. Instead I get splash damage killed by someone on the other side of the planet. FML…..

Alberto Statti

At its peak World of Warcraft was the biggest game in the world with a staggering 12 million subscribers. That number has been reducing at a rapid rate hitting 5.5million last year, based on the last quarter reports of 2015. Although the game is still making huge profits, $212 million in the last quarter of 2015, its popularity is clearly declining and there are many reasons for this:

Poor quality expansion packs

There have been 3 expansion packs released for World of Warcraft in the last 4 years, all of which need to be purchased by players that are already paying a subscription to Blizzard. This seems to have angered a lot of fans who believe these expansions haven’t offered much in the way of added gameplay, and aren’t very good value for money compared to the base game and earlier expansion packs. The content provided is scarce and they lack uniqueness making fans feel they are receiving a rehash of old content.

Subscriptions are outdated

In today’s economic climate people aren’t so keen on paying subscriptions for a single game, you wouldn’t want to have to cancel your favourite game because you were having a tough month. The micro transaction format is much more popular nowadays and brings in significantly higher revenues. Blizzard seem to be heading in this direction with its newer releases and could considering changing WOW to a micro transaction or free to play format in order to revitalise the game.

Parental concern

When World of Warcraft first launched it was perfectly acceptable to let your child play online with his friends and talk to them via a headset. As time has passed parents have become savvier to the dangerous of the internet and the abuse that can be flung around while playing online. A raid that is going badly can result in a lot of anger and aggression, and language that is definitely not PG friendly. This had led to many parents stopping their children and young teenagers from playing the game.

Game play changes

There have been many game play changes over the years some have been welcomed and some have not. Blizzard have altered a lot of the class specification in an attempt to make all classed equal, but this has taken away from the uniqueness of each class, and the reason you felt drawn to be a certain class to begin with is taken away. This lack of distinctiveness leaves the game feeling bland and lacklustre.

By Alberto Statti

Just like a standard third-person shooter, The Division has the same prospects, of course with more elements on MMO/RPG. One of the things you should know from the start is that XP doesn’t earn you new skills or abilities. To do that, you have to improve and expand your base of operations. For example, when you build a new medical wing or ward, you unlock a new healing skill. Nonetheless, this does not render earning XP useless because better weapons and gear means reaching higher levels easily.

The PVE difficulty in this game is based on how many people you have in your team. This is because The Division is easier to handle as a solo mission than when playing alongside a group of friends, three in particular. However, when you are playing in Hard mode, it is advisable that you bring on board at least one team member since the difficulties are increased in that mode.

For easy switching from cover to cover, always aim the screen towards the cover the hold the A/CTRL button. This way, you will be able to beeline to cover minimizing the time you are exposed to your enemy. Otherwise, a team member could use an LMG that suppresses your enemy thus enabling you to quickly move up and flank them from their side.

You can also do a roll out by double taping the cover button. This is very helpful when an enemy throws a grenade at your or when you are under heavy gunfire or when moving across uncovered spaces.

The maximum level is 30 when you are aiming at completing PVE, and Rank 99 when looking at Dark Zone, this enables you to focus on a level goal. Unlike other games, The Division does not feature the get-rich-quick option that allows the player to level up in record time. Alternatively, there are numerous opportunities to earn gear besides playing the story such as teaming up for side missions, locating ECHO sequences, completing random encounters and replaying missions on higher difficulties.

It is only with your Dark Zone rank 50+ that you will be able to have better weapons and gear. As such, the trick here is to kill as many enemies as you can, locate loot crates and kill named enemies. Take note that even with this strategy, if you die quite often, your DZ rank drops quite considerably, especially when you have gone rogue.